Snubbed Burling ‘key’ to cup victory
While Peter Burling was a key part of the America’s Cup victory, so were many others, Team New Zealand (TNZ) chief operating officer Kevin Shoebridge says, after it emerged on Saturday the stellar helmsman had not been nominated for the Halberg Awards Sportsman of the Year.
Winning the cup came down to hard work against the odds by a team of nearly 100 who fought obstacles and setbacks over three years, Shoebridge said.
He pointed to 30 ‘‘very skilled’’ designers, six sailors all with vital roles, as well as many others who helped pull the victory together.
‘‘It can never been pinned down to one person,’’ Shoebridge said. ‘‘It’s a lot more complex than a normal sport. There’s many moving parts to it.’’
He was sure Burling would feel comfortable being nominated as part of the team, in the Team of the Year category.
‘‘While there was a huge input from Pete, [so there was] from a number of others,’’ he said.
Burling steered TNZ to victory off Bermuda in June, to become the youngest winning helmsman in the 166-year history of the Auld Mug.
While that victory seemed to have given him a lock on Sportsman of the Year, he is not on the list of nominees to be released on Thursday.
National sporting organisations - in this case Yachting New Zealand - nominate their athletes.
The awards recognise New Zealand’s top sporting achievements, with the David-beats-Goliath America’s Cup win over Oracle an inescapable 2017 highlight.
Burling and Blair Tuke won Team of the Year at the 2016 awards, after winning yachting gold at the Rio Olympic Games.
TNZ have been nominated for Team of the Year by Yachting New Zealand, yet turned down repeated approaches to nominate Burling as an individual.
An Halberg awards nominations panel has the power to go back to sports if it considers a key name missing.
It is understood the panel has raised Burling with Yachting New Zealand numerous times, with the yachting body then trying to persuade TNZ to change their mind.
The Halberg Disability Sport Foundation, which runs the awards, does not discuss who is or is not nominated.
At the core of TNZ resistance is their belief they are a team, not a collection of individuals in which one person is more important than another, Yachting New Zealand chief executive David Abercrombie said.
Abercrombie described the situation as ‘‘awkward’’.
‘‘We need to maintain a good relationship with them [TNZ] and if you are going to nominate someone you need the support of those that you are nominating ... you have to respect that.’’